Combining the newest features with moderate expandability, Intel’s mainstream platforms provide high value to most gaming and overclocking enthusiasts. We compare six examples with Z77 Express to find the best features, overclocking, and efficiency.

The components of Intel’s Maho Bay platform, including the Z77 Express chipset and Ivy Bridge-based processors, have been floating around our SoCal lab all year. And yet, the company waited until April to to slowly roll its parts out, allowing channel partners to clear as many Sandy Bridge-based machines as possible before relegating the architecture to "prior-gen."

The Z77 Express chipset was quickly followed by Ivy Bridge-based processors, and both of our stories on those parts came to the same conclusion: mainly, that the new generation of hardware is barely better than the Z68 Express and Sandy Bridge architecture it replaces.

Nevertheless, Maho Bay's improvements still make it the preferred choice for anyone replacing an older system. If you're already running a machine that center on Sandy bridge, an upgrade doesn't make sense. But if you're stuck with a Core 2- or Phenom-based box, Z77 Express and an Ivy Bridge-based processor are the logical path forward.

If you're patient enough to hold off on Sandy Bridge, sticking with two- or three-year-old hardware for this long, then X79 is probably totally out of the question. It's a good thing, then, that the Maho Bay platform inherits its predecessor's mainstream pricing. On the other hand, if you're savvy enough to read Tom's Hardware, then you probably also share our high expectations for quality, stability, and robust features.

With that degree of frugality in mind, we begin our Z77 Express-based motherboard round-ups right in the middle of the enthusiast market: Under £160.

miguelsYeah, I know, but it says in the article that the Asus P8Z77-V Pro doesn't have a power button

Yes , but there a set of headers were u can connect the cables that connet to the front / top of your case so that u can just click and that it . The ones that have a power button it's if u want to change parts like gpu and u don't want to put it in a case. Hope it helped